ByteDance Bids Farewell: TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is set to wind down its Nuverse gaming brand, signaling a retreat from mainstream video games, as reported by four individuals familiar with the matter. ByteDance stated that it’s restructuring its gaming business after a recent review, without providing further details.
“We regularly review our businesses and make adjustments to center on long-term strategic growth areas. Following a recent review, we’ve made the difficult decision to restructure our gaming business,” said a spokesperson.
ByteDance is expected to instruct employees on Monday to halt work on unreleased games by December and explore ways to divest from launched titles. This move will likely impact hundreds of employees, with some learning about it over the weekend.
The Chinese tech giant has no intentions of reentering the $185 billion global video games market, according to undisclosed sources. The decision doesn’t affect the casual gaming brand Ohayoo, featured on Douyin (TikTok’s sister app in China), nor does it impact casual games on TikTok.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported ByteDance’s efforts to find buyers for its game-developing subsidiary Moonton Technology. The company also restructured its virtual reality firm, Pico, leading to substantial cuts in its content team.
While ByteDance’s creation of Nuverse in 2019 was initially seen as a significant foray into global gaming, its performance, particularly with titles like “Marvel Snap,” fell short of commercial success. Despite this, it became one of ByteDance’s six business units in 2021, following a broader structural overhaul. Nuverse had sought to bolster its production capacity by acquiring external studios, including C4games in 2021.
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